I Can Do Hard Things

I CAN DO HARD THINGS

Top Five Pickup Lines you can use to meet a new “friend” today.

Number 5  I don’t have a library card, but can I check you out?

Number 4  I’m not an environmentalist, but if you were a tree, I’d be a tree-hugger.

Number 3  If I had a nickel for every time I saw somebody as beautiful as you I would have five cents…

Number 2  If I were a gardener I’d put your tulips next to mine.

Number 1  Are you a parking ticket? Because you have fine written all over you.

A Painful Pickup Experience…

There are so many situations in life that could be considered “hard.”  Write down at least 5 situations in modern life for teenagers that could be considered “hard.” Definition of “hard”: difficult: not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure

The Scriptures Are Full of Hard Things!

“I have developed a personal motto…It is… I can do hard things!” Sister Susan W. THAT CAN BE YOUR Tanner MOTTO TOO! http://lds.org

Why Does the Lord Require Hard Things? Abraham 3:25

Elder Richard G. Scott Ensign, Nov. 1995, 16 Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more (see Prov. 3:11-12). He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit. To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain.

How Can I Do Hard Things?  Count your blessings  Be content  Never complain—others have it worse.  Serve others  Increase your testimony  Act in faith  Fear not  Go in the strength of the Lord

Count your blessings— more than just a song In a scientific experiment researchers randomly assigned college students to two different groups. One wrote for twenty minutes each day about things they were happy about. A second group wrote about random things like describing their shoes. Guess which group was happiest?

Grateful for Thumbs? D&C 78:19 Photo Credit: Tazmany on Flickr

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Ensign, Nov. 2005 I plead with you… to please be more accepting of yourselves, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing to look like someone else. We are all different.

“Be Content”  2 Corinthians 11:24-27 (p. 1471).  Philippians 4:11 (p. 1492).

A lot of people have it worse Google: “Teenage Affluenza”

A lot of people have it worse “About 25,000 people die each day from hunger or hunger-related causes, most of them children.”

Elder Richard G. Scott “Commencement” 10 Aug. 2000 http://speeches.byu.edu “Never complain.” Numbers 11:1

Service at a Dance?

Sister Susan W. Tanner http://lds.org, Ensign, Nov. 2005 I remember well the insecurities I felt as a teenager with a bad case of acne. I tried to care for my skin properly. My parents helped me get medical attention. For years I even went without eating chocolate and all the greasy fast foods around which teens often socialize, but with no obvious healing consequences. It was difficult for me at that time to fully appreciate this body which was giving me so much grief.

Sister Susan W. Tanner http://lds.org, Ensign, Nov. 2005 But my good mother taught me a higher law. Over and over she said to me, “ You must do everything you can to make your appearance pleasing, but the minute you walk out the door, forget yourself and start concentrating on others.”

Matthew 14:13-14  (See also John 19:26-27)

When our beloved prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, was asked on his birthday this past August what would be the ideal gift that members worldwide could give him, he said without a moment’s hesitation, “Find Elder Quentin L. Cook, Ensign someone who is having a hard Nov. 2008 time, . . . and do something for them.”

AMEN! “All victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness, and prayers of faith” (Doctrine and Covenants 103:36).

Increase Your Testimony  1 Nephi 3: 5-6: What was the hard thing Nephi was asked to do? Verse-7 I will go and do for I know…  Alma 20:14: What was the hard thing Lamoni was asked to do? Verse-15: I go…for I know…

What Will You Do When You Are Asked to do Hard Things?  John 6:60, 66-69 (P. 1337)

Tim and the Steak

Act in Faith  Joshua 3:13  1 Samuel 17:33-36, 45-48  Your experiences  Hebrews 11:32-33

Everybody Gets Afraid…

Exodus 14:11-28 “Fear Ye Not”

“Fear Not” and “Fear ye Not” Appear more than 100 times in the scriptures  “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2 Kings 6:16).  Don’t worry about things that at are outside of your control. Fear Not!

Before we get to the 8th key, let me tell you about my haircut…

The Strength of the Lord 1 Nephi 7:17

I personally do not believe the bands with which Nephi was bound just magically fell from his hands and wrists. Rather, I suspect that he was blessed with both persistence and personal strength beyond his natural capacity, that he then "in the strength Elder David A. of the Lord" (Mosiah 9:17) worked Bednar, and twisted and tugged on the cords “In the Strength of the Lord” and ultimately and literally was speeches.byu.edu enabled to break the bands. See 1 Nephi 7:17 and Mosiah24:14-15

Elder David A. Bednar, Ensign, Nov. 2004 “The enabling and strengthening power of the Atonement helps us to…become good in ways that we could never recognize or accomplish with our limited mortal capacity.”

Ponder and Write 1. What has the Holy Ghost teaching you about facing challenges in your life? 2. What have you learned that you can share with a friend who is going through hard things? 3. What teachings about hard things will you apply in your life today?

“I have developed a personal motto…It is…I can do hard things!” “My real motto is, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me (Philippians 4:13 p.1452.)

You CAN do Hard Things  “I know thee by name” (Exodus 33:12)  “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3)  “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5)

I Can Do Hard Things

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